Working at MPH Words": Continuous, Nonstop,Perpetual,Unchanging,and Never- Ending!" Hats off to Cindy and Clay!

 

39. After Three Months – I Have Discovered “The Working at MPH Words”: Continuous, Nonstop, Perpetual, Unchanging, and Never-ending" – Hats off to Cindy and Clay!!

I guess I could just have the Blog with this title and send it out to you and you’d KNOW the rest of the story!! ;)) However, I am the lady of “where does she find all of those words.” ;)) So, let’s see what I can tell you about this week here at MPH.

Friday we ate out with the Expats that are back from a month in the States. We went to La Pacine- which Ken and I love. Yep! Ken had sole again- fried this time instead of cream sauce. I had my usual steak with Pepper! The staff and owner greeted us like old friends and they gave us the same waiters! Called the chauffeur in and we were supposed to drop some guest off to meet some friends at a nearby Pizza place but the friends were not there. So we took them on with us to supper. They sat by Ken and visited all during supper. Well…now we have a Safari travel guide for our trip to South Africa and a free place to stay! Love their accents!!

Saturday Ken and I did the Murray Style Texas Chicken BBQ on the back patio.  Fixed food to serve 11 of us. We- Inge and I- invited five others. Only four came. All arrived late. Supper was at 6 and one group strolled in at seven – (We had already begun to eat – did not want to burn and dry out the chicken!) and she said to me, “The ----s don’t do a 6 PM supper. Well... Ok. MPH does it at 6 because the cooks are all still here and can help carry stuff out to and help set up the patio.The other guest was caught in Kinshasa traffic on the way back from the airport and apologized all over the place! The BBQ chicken was great and moist like Ken is a master at doing. It was done on an open barrel grill- very different charcoal from the States- and poor Ken nearly burned his arms off. Next time we will have some welding gloves for him because they want BBQ chicken at least one more time before we leave! (And Inge wants one of the cooks to stay over and learn from Ken exactly what to do. (He still won’t have that "Ken" touch! ;) )

I spent almost the whole day in a strange kitchen. I had a learning curve for the Congo ingredients and cooking in a HOT kitchen!! So before I could add milk- I had to make it!! Sugar is the brownish raw stuff here. Cokes are all in bottles unless you spend at least $1.60 a can at the store when there’s a sale on 24 pack for canned cokes!! I had had a returning missionary bring me the stuff to be able to continue the requested”Cook Texas stuff for us before you leave.” (Me- the girl from the Carolinas- go figure!!) So I got out the bag of Kraft Miniature marshmallows so I could make a Chocolate Coke Cake for supper. So here I am – making milk for several recipes besides the cake, getting the butter out of the freezer so I would be able to cut it. Finally go to add the butter and marshmallows and they have melted and the marshmallows have all stuck together in the bag- a gooey mess!. (Had to cut the glump out of the bag!!) Could not run go buy some more!! They did separate after I stirred them in the batter for awhile. I did not have to follow the direction part that said-“Melt the butter!” ;) So I guess one can cook faster here by eliminating steps! ;)  Then I made a triple recipe of Kentucky Spoon Bread requested by Inge – once she found out I know how to make it- for Larry. Three stoves but only one oven works and selected eyes. It’s Congo!!  The cooks were all saying, “Mama, use the computer magic and translate all of these into French. And, Mama, please put your name on the recipes so we can think of you and thank you again for working with us in the kitchen.” Then we made glazed carrots. They’d never seen that. “Mama salt and sugar??” “Yes, a little of one and lots of the other- and don’t get them backwards!!;))” They thought that was so funny!

Ken and I used the spray we got at Wal-Mart again and we were great. Everyone else was getting No-See-Ems and mosquito bites. Sat around until the bats were squeaking and flying around for supper- theirs not ours- but when green mangoes began to fall everyone  jumped up and headed in.“They really hurt when they land on you!”

Some future, very young, missionaries are here on their way in and out of the country - way up in the bush- to see it before they move here. They have 4 kids, ages 1,3,5,8 and only brought the two older ones. He is a Psychology major. He will teach and she will work with kids.  They just went to Nicaragua on their own for a year but that did not work out. They also fish Salmon up in Alaska during the thaw and run months. Before they can come they will have to find their own people and churches to support them and go to language school for a year. So it will be awhile. Speaking of STEEP learning curve!! Whew!! Oh, to be young and know so much again!!

Had a doctor here meeting some American doctors to take up country to share with folks some new medical stuff. They had their lap tops, I pads, and all the electronic ways to share. Hope the electricity is up! I asked him how the medical student’s knowledge here compares to the knowledge a graduating med student has in the US. The med school graduates here in Congo maybe know 45% of what they know in the US. I asked if Congo is that far behind. It is because America moves ahead by leaps and bounds. Congo has stuff and can do tests and x-rays etc. but the patients can’t afford the bill. So they won’t go to a hospital many times. They may go to a small clinic or often to a med student that flunked out. “So when did you come?” "1996 and it has gone backwards since." Wow!! But so much of the infrastructure has gone backwards! They use US. Dollars, have no mail system, and roads are deplorabel except the main Boulevard for the most part, no garbage collection, and the everyday things we are so use to don't exist. When we were here 50+ years ago the mission hospitals didn’t charge- as I recall but I might be wrong on that! I remember the families had to come and camp out back of the hospital and cook and feed the sick person- if they could eat- but I think that was our mission – to take care of them with no charge! I’m sure Congo Connection will correct me on that if necessary.

Wellllllll Sunday… Before my office mate left Friday she called the coordinator of the Sunday arrival folks and was told they would not be here before 18:00PM. “So, Mama, Kabanza and Jonathan can get all rooms done when the 9 guests leave and before the other 9 arrive late Sunday afternoon.” I tell her there is no way I can go to church with all of that going on. But she assures me it will all be fine.  The bell rings at 7 AM for Sunday Breakfast and we sit and have the blessing. Tap on my shoulder. It’s the sentry. “Sorry, Mama, but some of your guests with----- are here.” I about choke! So I get up and leave and head out to the parking lot. They are all piling out of a beat up, smoking, on its last leg/ tire vehicle and hauling out their luggage. (Let me pause and tell you about the Congolese luggage. Few have suitcases. It’s grocery bags, what remains of a Styrofoam cooler and baskets with the stuff taped inside with cardboard between the stuff and the tape. So this stuff is being unloaded at my front door. I tell them to stop that they are not scheduled to arrive until six PM and that they will have to come back. They may leave their”luggage” and can sit out on the patio for the rest of the day but the rooms will not be ready until late afternoon. They tell me that is ok they’ll just come in and take showers. I then tell them all of our rooms are occupied with guests still. Then the rooms will have to be cleaned. They mumble, unload and pile back in and leave. When one man returns later in the day to check in he tells me that his wife has arrived in town to “visit a sick relative” and he wants her to stay here with him.  When pigs fly!! I had been warned by Cindy that the Congolese men- whether ministers or educators at the university try that line or one like it to bring their “ Lady of the Night” or Hoe- as my Junior High kids called them in Texas- to stay here with them. So I smiled- maybe it was a smirk- anyway I told him that ____ had paid for his room and if he brought anyone in he would have to pay the difference up front and that I would let ____ know that he had brought a guest. He looked and me, took a breath, thought better of it and said, no that she could stay with family in the city. Then several tried to sneak in Smoked fish – I may wear glasses but my nose still can smell that horrible stuff- and bedia. So I had to tell them that outside food not allowed and they could either pay for our meals, order pizza each night since that comes cooked and takes none of our equipment or they could eat out. _____ did not pay for your meals. Just your rooms and breakfast that is included. So they probably “talked about my mother”( as the saying goes) - but better folks than they have done that in the past! So I did not make it to church to say the least.

Office mate arrives this morning all smiles to see how it all went yesterday. Welllll. Once I said the first group arrived at 7 AM and then told of the food and the other “guest” issues (and she agreed with me it would have not been his wife!) she was boiling. She called someone on the phone from ____ and ripped them a new one!! French at 1000miles an hour and at 10,000 decibels is amazing to experience! Wow!!

So let me try to add a couple of pictures and I will sign off.

Oops! Not yet!! Gigi just got "first day of school pics" from all of our girls!! So you get to be treated! They grow up so fast! Senior year for Callie!!

 

 

 

 

Have a great rest of the Day!! Love Ya! Me